SOURCE INDEPENDENT: Trade
Union Bill - All Scottish councils say they will ignore controversial new law

All 32 Scottish councils will refuse to implement the
conditions of the bill when it becomes law. Those conditions include removing
the process of check-offs whereby union subscriptions are deducted from the
salaries of workers who are members of a trade union. Unions have complained
that this is a cynical ploy to reduce their funding and will waste their
resources in renewing subscriptions. They are also infuriated that the bill
constrains the amount of paid time off that public sector union representatives
can take for those responsibilities, a move the authorities will also oppose. Union
leaders believe the move could help turn opinion against the bill across the
country, in a repeat of Margaret Thatcher’s Poll Tax debacle. Opposition to the
hated levy started in Scotland, where trials were run in 1989, before it was
dropped and replaced by the Council Tax four years later.

MORE than three million lower-paid households will lose an
average of £1,350 a year under planned tax credit cuts, a new report has found.
To add to the insult, letters informing struggling families exactly how hard
they will be hit are due to arrive just before Christmas. A new National Living
Wage of £7.20 an hour is designed to offset the cuts, but the Resolution
Foundation found that for 3.2million families it will be nowhere near enough to
fill the shortfall. The think-tank’s analysis found a two-parent family — where
one adult works full time and the other does 20 hours a week on the minimum
wage — will get a £1,100 annual pay rise, but be £1,800 out of pocket overall
as tax credit cuts bite. A single parent working full time on the minimum wage
will get a £700 pay rise in 2016 but be £1,500 worse off overall due to the
cuts. Resolution Foundation senior economic analyst David Finch said: “The
Government needs to re-think its welfare cuts which will hit the wallets of
many hard-working people.” A poll yesterday found more than one in four voters
would be less likely to vote Tory at the next election because of the cuts. Many
Tories also joined calls for the Chancellor to ease the pain. Self-employed telemarketer
Judith, 44, works flexible hours to care for daughter Niamh, 12. The single
mum, of Wellingborough, Northants, said: “I’m going to have to cut back hugely.
“I can’t afford to run a car, I haven’t had one for nine years. This means even
more cutbacks. It is like a punch in the teeth. £1,300 is a lot of money to cut
from what I have.”